The government expands the list of hard-to-recover oil reserves

An interdepartmental working group, established on the initiative of the Ministry of Natural Resources, proposed expanding the criteria for classifying hydrocarbon deposits as hard-to-recover reserves (TRIZ) in a new draft classifier. This is stated in the report of Rosnedr. Vedomosti got acquainted with him. “It is proposed to expand the criteria for classifying certain hydrocarbon deposits as hard-to-recover, depending on the features of the geological nature, reservoir properties, physical and chemical properties, phase state in reservoir conditions (unconventional gas reserves),” the report explains.

Now the main oil and gas production comes from relatively easy-to-develop deposits, when hydrocarbons are easily pumped out of the reservoirs to the surface. TRIZ, the development of which requires special technologies, began to be actively developed in recent decades, as the reserves of more accessible hydrocarbons decreased. TRIZ now includes deposits of the Bazhenov, Abalak, Khadum and Domanik formations (a combination of rocks), as well as super-viscous oil with a viscosity of 10,000 mPa s or more in reservoir conditions and oil in reservoirs with a permeability of no more than 0.002 sq. µm.